Colombia: kidnap capital

Colombia is the kidnap capital of the world, a country in the grip of a civil war and savaged by feuding drug gangs.

Each year hundreds of people are taken hostage - many by left-wing rebel groups such as the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) or their Marxist rivals the National Liberation Army (ELN).

Thousands more have been killed in the brutal civil war, which has lasted almost 40 years.

The rebels remain safe from government troops among Colombia's rainforests, the world's last great unexplored wilderness.

It is one of the planet's most treacherous places, a maze of mosquito-infested rivers, swamps, jungles and mountains, and the home of ancient and lost civilisations.

Its mysteries attract explorers from across the world, despite warnings not to venture there.

Some travellers are kidnapped and never make it out alive - but some do.

Tom Hart Dyke, 27, a botanist from Eynsford, Kent, travelled to the Colombia-Panama border to hunt for rare orchids.

Instead, he was kidnapped and held at gunpoint for nine months.

He and a fellow British traveller, former City merchant banker Paul Winder, from Chelmsford, were kidnapped in the village of Payita in an area neighbouring the region where the two Britons have gone missing.

Mr Hart Dyke said: "The rebels told us 'We are going to get five million dollars for you - or we will blow your head off'.

They had to march for a month and were constantly moving to avoid rival rebel groups, local bandits and Colombian army units.

In all they covered 1,200 miles across hills, swamps and muddy rainforests.

After failing to get the ransom, Mr Hart Dyke believes, the rebels simply got tired of having to move with the captives and decided to release them.

The two were kidnapped in March 2000 and released on December 10, nine months later.

Three missionaries, none British, have been missing since 1993, Mr Hart Dyke said. It is not thought they are still alive.

And Jeremy Parks, 28, a graphic designer from Bromley, south east London, was killed after a firefight between Colombian troops and ELN guerillas in November 2001.

He was on a tour of South America and is believed to have been kidnapped by the rebels and caught in the crossfire.